Drapery hanger



Dec. 1, 1970 EGEA ETAL 3,543,328

DRAPERY HANGER Filed March 27, 1968 v INVENTORS. LIBORIO EGEA BY TOBIAS VILAPLANA ATTORNEY.

United States Patent 3,543,328 DRAPERY HANGER Liborio Egea, Center Square, and Tobias Vilaplana,

Norristown, Pa., assignors to New Products Corporation, Blue Bell, Pa.

Filed Mar. 27, 1968, Ser. No. 716,647 Int. Cl. A4711 13/00, 13/14; E05d 13/02 U.S. Cl. 16-87.4 7 Claims BACKGROUND It is the custom to hang drapes by employing drape hangers. A drape hanger is usually formed to gather a portion of the drape to effect a pleat and is further formed to hook over a slidable element on a traverse rod or a draw-drape curtain rod.

The conventional traverse rod is fabricated from rolled sheet metal, is hollow and has a backwall which is pro vided with a longitudinal slot or groove extending along the length of the rod. A convenient number of slidable elements are usually found inserted in the groove of the traverse rod. These slidable elements are very often referred to as drapery carriers. The draper carriers are usually formed with an end that resembles a cable carrier spool. In other words, there is one flange-like section seated within the hollow portion of the traverse rod and a second flange-like section disposed outside the hollow portion against the outer surfaces of the traverse rod which define the groove. The carrier flanges are joined by a middle section. In effect the two flange-like sections in conjunction with the middle section provide the spool-like end whose middle section approximates the width of the slot of the traverse rod. The outside flange-like section actually has an elongated lobe which has an aperture therein through which the drapery hangers are hooked to carry the drapes. When the drapes are drawn or pulled along the traverse rod the drapery carriers simply slide along the spool-like portion riding in the slot of the traverse rod.

The drapery hangers are formed to gather the drapes in pleats along the heading of the drape. The hangers being hooked over the carriers and being pulled down by the Weight of the drape tend to pivot around the aperture in the elongated lobe of the carrier. Thus the heading section of the drape, or the gathered portions, are displaced angularly away from the pivot point and tend to give the drape a drooping effect along its upper section.

There have been various attempts to correct this drooping effect of the drapes, such as providing a hook which when it pivots simply abuts the carrier at its lower eX- tremity. In other attempts various shaped carriers have been provided which provide apertures in the same plane as the front surface of the traverse rod and in conjunction therewith a rigid angular projection means with the aperture to hold the curtain or drape rigidly in a perpendicular alignment. In addition some various forma tions of a traverse rod have been offered, one of which holds the carrier more rigidly and further enables the carrier to have its connecting point at the outer surface of the traverse rod. Each of these solutions has in part overcome the problem, but in some areas such as the formation of the rather elaborate traverse rod or the rather elaborate drapery carriers, the fabrication has been costly or the user has had to replace the standard and traditional traverse rod and/or drapery carriers with the more elaborate structure. In the case of the hook which provided a portion that simply abutted the lower end of the carrier it has been found that the curtain carrier having the oversized slot, that it has normally, partially rotates in its slot position. These carriers are usually made of plastic or some other flexible material and are bendable. Accordingly, the abutting curtain hooks act to bend the lower portion and further rotate the carrier in the groove of the traverse rod, thus providing a drooping effect.

SUMMARY The present drapery hook is formed such that when it is mounted in a conventional drapery carrier through the previously described aperture, it cannot be rotated because the upper portion of the hook abuts the outer flange of the carrier and hence the drape is held in an upright position. In one embodiment there is provided a cap element which fits over the upper portion of the book as well as the outer flange of the carrier.

The objects and features of this invention will be best understood by reference to the following description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a sectional schematic of the drapery hanger;

FIG. 2 is a pictorial of a drapery carrier;

FIG. 3 is a side schematic of the drapery hanger with a cap;

FIG. 4 is a front view of one embodiment of the drapery hanger;

FIG. 5 is a front view of a second embodiment of a drapery hanger;

FIG. 6 is a side schematic of a third embodiment of a drapery hanger;

FIG. 7 is a partial side schematic of a fourth embodi-' ment of a drapery hanger;

PIC; 8 is a top view of the arrangement shown in FIG.

FIG. 9 is a partial schematic of the embodiment of FIG. 1 with the hook being formed from said support is made up of a first flange-like section 19 located within the hollow portion 13 of the traverse rod 11. In addition, there is a middle section 21 which connects the inner flange 19 to the outer flange 23. The outer flange 23 has an elongated lobe 25 in which there is formed an aperture not visible in FIG. 1. The aperture 27 is visible in FIG. 2. All of the identical section numbers or part numbers are used in FIG. 2.

Now it should be understood that the traverse rod is normally mounted on both ends of the window or doorway, or whatever, along which the drapes are to be drawn. It should be further understood that there is a plurality of drapery carriers 17 mounted in the traverse rod, each of the carriers being responsible for holding up a section of the drape. As is indicated earlier, the traverse rod 11 is usually made of rolled sheet metal, while it has become the custom to make the drapery carriers, such as drapery carrier 17, of plastic.

The drapery hook as shown in FIG. 1 is made up of three main sections. There is the gathering section 29 which fits into the cups of the drape and holds the drape in a peaked or gathered form. Actually the gathering section 29 is better shown in FIG. 4, and an alternative type gathering section can be of the type shown in FIG. 5. The gathering section 29 continues as either a double or a single metal piece from its knee 31 to its end 33 at which point the hook is disposed. The section 31 to 33 will be identified as the support section 35. At the end 33 of the support section 35 there is secured a hook element 37 which has an angular portion 39 that extends through the aperture 27 and an upper portion 41 which is formed to abut the outer flange 23 of the carrier 17.

Now it becomes apparent from viewing FIG. 1 that if a drape is gathered by the gathering section 29 and the weight of the drape provides a vector of force, such as the vector 43, the drape hanger will tend to pivot around the aperture 27 by virtue of the angular hook section 39. However, when this rotation is attempted the upper portion of the hook immediately abuts the carrier 17 which provides a further vector force across the carrier 17 to push the carrier 17 onto the lower portion of the slot 15. Hence there is very little rotation of the entire assembly and the drape is held upright with no drooping eflect at the heading of the drape.

While the arrangement shown in FIG. 1 is perfectly suitable for most standard drape carriers it has come to my attention that certain drape carriers do not have sufliciently wide flanges or sufficiently properly shaped flanges to operate properly. For instance when the drape is moved from the open to the closed position and vice versa there is some tendency to move the upper section of the hook 41 sideways with respect to the carrier 17. Hence it is possible, with some violent tugging action and quick movement of the drape, that the upper section 41 would be moved off the edge of the carrier 17. Accordingly, the same device is shown in FIG. 3 with the same identification numbers and with two apparent changes. There is no traverse rod shown in FIG. 3 although it is to be understood that the traverse rod would encompass the flange 19 and have its slot movably assembled with the middle section 21 as in FIG. 1. In addition, there is shown a cap 45 which has an aperture 47 therein that fits over the upper end 41 of the hook 37. While there is an aperture shown therein, it should be understood that this simply could be a groove extending from the left-hand edge of the cap 45 into the approximate position of the aperture 47. The aperture 47 being fitted over the end 411 has a groove at its right-hand side that simply fits over the flange section 23. The cap 45 is shown and better seen in FIG. 8 along with aperture 47 and the groove 49 which fits over the flange 23. As can be seen in FIG. 8 there is an alternative to the aperture 47 which is shown in phantom as a groove cut in the left-hand section rather than the aperture through the entire cap. Other arrangements of the cap could be provided and be within the spirit of the invention so long as they are formed to keep the upper end 47 from sliding off the flange 23 when p the drapery carrier is moved in a closing or opening action.

FIG. 6 shows an additional embodiment of the drapery hook where most of the sections are shown with the same identification numbers as in FIGS. 1 and 3. In FIG. 6 there is a change in the construction to accommodate a particular kind of drape carrier. Some drape carriers have a somewhat concaved surface in the left-hand most (as viewed in FIG. 6) surface of the flange 23. For such a carrier the upper portion 42 of the hook can be curled as shown in FIG. 6 or formed into some other gripping configuration so that it will grip or fill the concave surface of the outside flange. While the upper section 42 is shown in a curled configuration it should be apparent and should be understood that other configurations can be shown and can be used within the spirit of this invention if the other configuration simply provides some means to hold firm against the outside flange.

Such another configuration is shown by way of example in FIG. 7. In FIG. 7 the upper section 44 of the hook 37 is shown as a U-shaped formation. The U-shape simply grips around the outer flange and does not necessitate using a cap.

It should be apparent that the many configurations of the hook all employ the same basic principle, namely that of providing a means whereby the upper section of the hook abuts the outside flange of the carrier, which in turn passes on the would be force of rotation against the traverse rod since the traverse rod is held firmly in its mounting device. The equal and opposite reaction holds the entire assembly rigid and therefore holds the drapery heading in an upright position.

FIG. 10 shows an embodiment of the present drapery hanger which acts to insure the smooth movement of the carrier through a jointure of two sections of a traverse rod. The support section 35 has a shield 53 mounted on its upper portion. The shield 53 has two wing sections 54 and 55 formed therefrom. The two wing sections 54 and 55 are formed to slide over the overlap where the sections join and pull the drapery carrier 17 outwardly over the overlap.

While the foregoing description sets forth the principles of my invention in conjunction with the embodiment shown it is to be clearly understood that this description is made only by Way of example and not as a limitation to the scope of the invention as set forth in the accompanying claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A drapery hanger comprising:

a first section formed to fit into the cups of a drapery header;

a second section integral with said first section formed to extend away from said first section;

a third section integral with said second section at a point which disposes said third section a predetermined distance from said first section, said third section further formed with said second section to be held facing said first section and substantially parallel to said first section;

hook means integral with said third section along a side thereof facing said first section whereby the open section defined by said hook is directed toward said first section and at a point so that said third section extends therebeyond, in a direction away from said second section, by a sufficient distance so as to abut a drapery carrier when said hook means is disposed in said carrier.

2. A drapery hanger according to claim 1 wherein said first section has a plurality of members forming a fanlike structure.

3. A drapery hanger according to claim 1 wherein said third section is formed of an upper piece and a lower piece and it is the upper piece which extends beyond the hook to abut the flange.

4. A drapery hanger according to claim 1 wherein there is further included a cap means having a removed portion therefrom to fit over said third section and further formed to ride on a carrier, to keep said third section from slipping off said carrier.

5. A drapery hanger according to claim 1 wherein said third section is formed at its free end to be secured to the flange of a drapery carrier.

6. A drapery hanger according to claim 1 wherein said third section is formed to be spring-loaded against the flange of a drapery carrier.

7. A drapery hanger according to claim 1 wherein said third section has a shield mounted thereon away from said second section and formed to encompass a drapery hanger flange and further formed to slide over an overlap of two sections of a traverse rod.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS CASMIR A. NUNBERG, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 160348 

